ISIS recently called for the type of attack that just happened at Ohio State

Investigators
collect evidence as police respond to an attack on campus at Ohio
State University on November 28 in Columbus.AP Photo/John Minchillo

The terrorist group ISIS had in recent months called for knife
and vehicle attacks of the sort that a student carried out at
Ohio State University on Monday.

The attacker drove into a group of pedestrians on OSU's campus
before using a butcher knife to stab people. Eleven people were
sent to the hospital with injuries. A campus police officer
killed the attacker at the scene.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday, and
supporters of the group were spreading
information about it through online channels shortly after it
happened. The specific motive behind the attack is unclear, but
the attacker, 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a US resident
from Somalia, had cited Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on what
appears to be his Facebook page.

While it's still unclear whether any one group inspired the
attack, terrorism analysts have been quick to note that it
closely mirrored recent ISIS propaganda.

Michael Smith, the founder of security firm Kronos Advisory, who
has advised Congress on terror-related issues, pointed
out on Twitter that an ISIS video released days before the
OSU attack showed a French ISIS member demonstrating how to kill
people using knives. The ISIS member also called for attacks in
the West.

And in the past two months, English-language ISIS propaganda
magazines have called for vehicle and knife attacks.

The latest issue of Rumiyah, a new magazine from the terror group
aimed at English-language speakers, included an article titled
"Just Terror Tactics" that outlined ideal vehicles to use in
terror attacks as well as ideal targets.

"Though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually
comprehend the deadly and destructive capability of the motor
vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbers of casualties
if used in a premeditated manner," the article said.

The article also cited the attack in Nice, France, in July, in
which a supposed ISIS supporter killed 86 people by plowing into
a crowd with a truck on Bastille Day.

"Vehicles are like knives, as they are extremely easy to
acquire," the article said.

Rumiyah

The previous issue of Rumiyah included another "Just Terror
Tactics" article that provided tips for knife attacks.

Knives "are widely available in every land and thus readily
accessible," the article said. "They are extremely easy to
conceal and highly lethal, especially in the hands of someone who
knows how to use them effectively."

The article also described how to choose a knife and target.

ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, now dead, had also called
for these attacks. He said in 2014: "If you are not able to find
an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American,
Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or
slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or
throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him."

Adnani issued a similar directive again in 2015.

Even if Artan wasn't directly inspired by ISIS, it's likely the
group will still use the attack to push its message.

"Even when there is no linkage to the group, it is common for
[ISIS] supporters to promote information about these types of
events in the West," Smith wrote
on Twitter. "This can help stimulate thinking about
opportunities to execute attacks among 'fence sitters' in the US
whom the group is using social media as a tool to help engineer
and resort to violence."

In addition to referencing an Al Qaeda cleric in his Facebook
posts, Artan implored Americans to make peace with "dawla in al
sham," which appears to be a reference to the self-declared
Islamic emirate ISIS
established in Syria.

The Soufan Group, a strategic-security firm, also noted the
similarities between ISIS propaganda and this attack.

"If Artan's motivation is determined to be terrorism,
investigators will first look for any accomplices," the firm
wrote
in a note on Tuesday. "Authorities will then look for
evidence of any direct communication Artan may have had with
known extremists, or if he was simply motivated and inspired
through extremist propaganda."

Some analysts warned against jumping to conclusions too early on.

ISIS "doesn't maintain a monopoly over global jihad," Nicholas
Glavin, a Naval War College researcher, wrote
on Twitter. "Yesterday's initial assumptions were dangerous."

He continued:
"It's a very 2015 mentality to assume an attack in West is
perpetrated by IS. Artan's background & campus interview hint
at his grievances."

Glavin appears to be referencing a recent profile of Artan in
the school
newspaper's "Humans of Ohio State" feature. Artan told the
paper that he had just transferred from Columbus State Community
College, and that as a practicing Muslim he "wanted to pray in
the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in
the media."